One-stop talent shop takes itself to market

Page Tools

An emerging talent management company run by former adland
heavyweight Ian Elliot together with Ben Macpherson, Elle's younger
brother, will float next month.

The company aims to take 15 per cent of the $1.1 billion spent
in production fees to actors and musicians, and ultimately plans to
create its own television and film productions and tap into the
emerging area of advertiser-funded content.

Artists and Entertainment Group is banking on consolidation in
the "cottage industry" of talent management in Australia for its
growth.

In the next three years, the company will expand the number of
singers, actors, models, writers and producers it represents to
gain a critical mass in the Australian creative industry and market
itself as a one-stop shop for creative talent and production
services.

AEG plans eventually to make more from developing films, music,
books and licensing deals with its artists - who include Delta
Goodrem and Blair McDonough - than from fees it receives
representing them.

By the end of 2007 it projects revenues of more than $20 million
- a 15 per cent cut of the $150 million in artists' fees it aims to
push through its books. For the year to June 2005, it is
forecasting a $935,000 net profit on revenues of $5.9 million.

Unlike in the US and Britain, where large management companies
offer a number of services under one roof, in Australia's creative
industries there are more than 1000 agents and managers operating,
generating $1.1 billion in fees - roughly half the total amount
spent on production of films, ads and theatre in Australia.

AEG believes that by signing up all the talent, including sound
and lighting technicians, a greater proportion of overall
production budgets will go through its books. At present, 60 per
cent of its business is related to advertising or marketing.

"We're confident we can offer [the ad industry] cost
efficiencies in the supply chain. We're going to win because we are
convenient and because we have the quality people," said Mr Elliot,
AEG's chairman. Mr Elliot is a former chief executive of George
Patterson Partners and current chairman of media buying agency
Zenith.

AEG aims to raise $3 million - 35 per cent of the company - when
it floats on December 7.

The drift towards bigger-budget ads filmed abroad, fuelled by
the stronger Australian dollar, would not affect AEG's growth, Mr
Elliot said. He expects shorter lead times will force commercials
to be shot in Australia. "You're part of the production cycle and
agencies are often towards the end of the process, and the amount
of time left dictates where [the ad] will be shot," he said.

Paul Bradbury, a member of the recently formed Branded Content
Marketing Association, the body promoting the creation of content
for advertisers, welcomed AEG's move. Marketing, he said, was
"increasingly about content, and celebs are very powerful". AEG had
Delta on its books, "and there aren't too many Deltas in Australia.
At the moment there seems to be more cachet in getting overseas
celebs: Carson Kressley in Myer and Arnott's ads [are] a case in
point."